THAT, in the summer of 1880, some other world, or whatever we'll call
it, after a period of hard luck, cheered up -- and cast off its despairs
-- which came to this earth, where there is always room for still more
melancholy -- in long, black, funereal processions.

August 18, 1880 -- people, near the waterfront of Havre, France, saw
the arrival of a gloom. Sails, in the harbour of Havre, suddenly turned
black. But, like every other gloom, this one alternated with alleviations.
The sails flipped white. There was a flutter of black and white. Then enormous
numbers of the units of these emotions were falling into the streets of
Havre. They were long, black flies.

In an editorial, in the London Daily Telegraph, August 21st,
it is said that this mysterious appearance of flies, [276/277] at Havre,
was a "puzzle of the most mysterious kind."(1)
These flies had come down from a point over the English Channel. They had
not come from England. I have searched widely in Continental publications,
and there is no findable record of any observation upon this vast swarm
of flies, until it came down from the sky, over the English Channel. Pilot
boats, returning to Havre, came in black with them. See the Journal
des Debats (Paris), Aug. 20 -- that they were exhausted flies, which
fell, when touched, and could not move, when picked up.(2)
Or they may have been chilled into torpidity. Presumably there were survivors,
but most of these helpless flies fell into the water, and the swarm, as
a swarm, perished. If this is a puzzle of the "most mysterious kind,"
I am going to be baffled for a description, as we go along. I don't know
what comes after the superlative.

Three days later, another vast swarm of long, black flies appeared somewhere
else. Just how much we're going to be puzzled by more than the most mysterious
depends upon how far this other place was from Havre. See the New York
Times, Sept. 8 -- that, upon August 21st, a cloud of long, black flies,
occupying twenty minutes in passing, had appeared at East Pictou, Nova
Scotia.(3)Halifax Citizen, Aug.
21 -- that they had passed Lismore, flying low, some of them appearing
to fall into the water.(4)

Upon the 2nd of September, another swarm came down from the sky. It
appeared suddenly, at one place, and there is no findable record that it
was seen anywhere else, over land or water of this earth. It is told of,
in the Entomologists' Monthly Magazine, Nov., 1880 -- off the coast
of Norfolk, England -- an avalanche that overwhelmed a schooner -- "millions
upon millions of flies."(5) The sailors
were forced to take shelter, and it was five hours before they could return
[277/278] to the decks. "The air became clear about 4 p.m., when the
flies were thrown overboard by shovelfuls and the remainder were washed
off the decks by buckets of water and brooms." It was another appearance
of exhausted, or torpid, flies.

Scientific American, 43-193 -- "On the afternoon of Saturday,
September 4th, the steamboat Martin encountered, on the Hudson River,
between New Hamburg and Newburg, a vast cloud of flies.(6)
It reached southward, from shore to shore, as far as the eye could reach,
and resembled a drift of black snow. The insects were flying northward,
as thick as snowflakes driven by a strong wind." They were long, black
flies. Halifax Citizen, Sept. 7 -- that, upon the 5th of September,
a compact cloud of flies, occupying half an hour in passing, had appeared
at Guysboro, Nova Scotia, hosts of them falling into the water.(7)

I think that crowd of flies was not the same as the Hudson River crowd,
even though that was flying northward. So I think, because the flies of
Guysboro, like the flies of Havre, came as if from a point over the ocean.
"They came from the east" (Brooklyn Eagle, Sept. 7).(8)

The look of the data is that, with an ocean between appearing-points,
a bulk of flies, of the size of a minor planet, dividing into swarms, somewhere
is outer space, came to this earth from somewhere else. It is simply a
matter of thinking of one origin, and then thinking that that origin could
not have been in either North America or Europe.

If we can think that these flies came to this earth from the moon, or
Mars, or from a fertile region in the concave land of the stars, that is
interesting; but by this time we have passed out of the kindergarten of
our notions, and are ready to take up not merely mysterious appearances,
by mysterious appearances [278/279] that will be data for our organic expressions.
In data upon insect-swarms of the summer of 1921, there is suggestion not
only of conventionally unaccountable appearances of insect-swarms, but
of appearances in response to need. If one has no very active awareness
for any need for insects, that is because one is not thinking far enough
back into interrelations of bugs and all other things.

In the summer of 1921, England was bereft of insects. The destruction
of insects, in England, by the drought of 1921, was, very likely, unequalled
at any other time, anyway for a century or more. The story of dwindling
and disappearing is told, in Garden Life, for instance -- aphides
becoming fewer and fewer -- absence of mosquitoes, because of the drying
of ponds -- not one dragon fly all summer -- scarcity of ants -- midges
almost entirely absent -- stricken fields in which not a butterfly was
seen -- ordinary flies uncommon, and bluebottles exterminated. See the
Field, and the Entomologists' Record, for similar accounts.(9)

Then came clouds of insects and plagues of insects: foreign insects,
and unknown insects. Anybody can find the data in various English publications.
I note here that one of the swarms of exotic insects was of large fireflies
that appeared in Wales (Cardiff Western Mail, July 12).(10)
Locusts appeared (London Weekly Dispatch, July 10).(11)
I suppose that almost any conventional entomologist will question my statement
that vast swarms of unknown insects appeared at this time, in England:
nevertheless, in the London Daily Express, Sept. 24, Prof. Le Froy
is quoted as saying, of a species of stinging insects, that it was unknown
to him.(12)

Destructions that were approaching extermination -- and then multitudinous
replenishments. I have searched widely without finding one datum for thinking
that [279/280] one of these replenishments was seen crossing the Channel.
Three of them were of foreign insects.

Once upon a time, according to ancient history, Somebody so loved this
world that he gave to it his only begotten son. In this year 1921, according
to more recent records, Something gave to the streets of London its many
forgotten women. To starving humans it gave a dole. But, when its insects
dwindled away, it bestowed profusions of bugs.

All our expressions are in terms of relative importance.

In the summer of 1869, in many parts of England, there was a scarcity
of insects that was in some ways more remarkable than that of 1921. This
scarcity was discussed in all entomological magazines of the time, and
was mentioned in newspapers and other publications. For one of the discussions,
see the Field, July 31 and Aug. 14, 1869.(13)
Most widely noticed was the absence of one of the commonest of insects,
the small, white butterfly, Pieris rapae. Some of the other ordinarily
plentiful species were scarcely findable.

In the London Times, July 17, a correspondent, in Ashford, writes
that a tropical, or sub-tropical insect, a firefly (Lampyris Italia)
had been caught in his garden.(14) In the
Times, of the 20th, the presence of this insect in England is seemingly
explained.(15) Someone else writes that,
upon June 29th, at Dover, only fifteen miles from Ashford, he had released
twelve fireflies, which he had brought in a bottle from Coblentz. But in
the same issue of this newspaper, a third correspondent writes that, at
Caterham, Surrey, had appeared many fireflies.(16)Weekly Dispatch (London) -- "They were so numerous that people
called them a nuisance."(17) Even
a firefly can't fly its fire, without a man with a bottle appearing and
saying that he had let it go. There will be accounts of other swarms. Only
[280/281] Titans, who had uncorked Mammoth Caves, in mountains of glass,
could put in claims for letting them go from bottles.

The coast of Lincolnshire -- and a riddance long and wide. The coast
of Norfolk -- several miles of tragedy. In the Zoologist, 1869-1839,
someone reports belts of water, some a few yards wide, and some hundreds
of yards wide, "of a thick, pea-soup appearance," so coloured
by drowned aphides, off the coast of Lincolnshire; and, off the coast of
Norfolk, a band of drowned ladybirds, about ten feet wide, and two or three
miles long.(18) Wherever this little dead
comet came from, there is no findable record that it had been seen alive
anywhere in Europe.

Upon the 26th of July, columns of aphides came down from the sky, at
Bury St. Edmunds, about 60 miles south of the coast of Lincolnshire massed
so that they gave off a rank odour, and so dense that, for anybody surrounded
by them, it was difficult to breathe. Upon the same day, at Chelmsford,
about 40 miles south of Bury St. Edmunds, appeared masses of these insects
equally vast. See Gardener's Chronicle, July 31, Aug. 7.(19)

Aphides had streaked the ocean. Columns of others had come down, like
vast, green stems, from the fern-like clouds. Less decoratively, others
darkened the sky. A new enormity appeared upon the coast of Essex, about
the first of August. According to correspondence, in the Maidstone Journal,
Aug. 23, fogs of aphides had shut off sunlight.(20)
They appeared in other parts of south eastern England. "They swarmed
to such an extent as to darken the air for days altogether, and to render
it almost dangerous to the sight of men and animals to be out of doors."

The 9th of August -- the first of the ladybirds that reached England
alive were reported at Ramsgate. [281/282] Three days later, between Margate
and Nore Light, near the mouth of the Thames, thousands of ladybirds speckled
a vessel. This diseased appearance took on a more serious look, with blotches
of small, yellow, black-marked flies. Then spread a cosmetic of butterflies.

These were van-swarms. Upon the 13th, an invasion was on. I quote chiefly
from the London Times.(21)

A cloud was seen over the Channel, not far from land, moving as if from
Calais, reaching Ramsgate, discharging ladybirds upon the town. They drifted
into piles in the streets. The town turned yellow. These were not red ladybirds.
There would be less mystery, if they were. People in the town were alarmed
by the drifting piles in the streets, and a new job, worth the attention
of anybody who collects notes upon odd employments, appeared. Ladybird
shovellers were hired to throw the drifts into sewers.

Clouds streaked counties. They moved northward, reaching London, upon
the 14th, pelting into the streets, and filling gutters. Children scooped
them up, filling bags and pails with them, and "played store"
with them. Multitudes went on as far as Worcester.

Upon the 14th, "a countless multitude" of other ladybirds
arrived upon the coasts of Kent and Surrey, and these clouds, too, seemed
to have come from France. They rattled, like coloured hail, against windows.
They were "yellow perils," and the inhabitants were alarmed,
fearing a pestilence from accumulations of bodies. Fires were built, to
burn millions of them, and people who had never shovelled ladybirds before
took up the new employment.

The next day, "an enormous multitude" of new arrivals appeared
at Dover, coming as if from France. The people who were out in this storm
carried umbrellas, which soon looked like huge sunflowers. Peo- [282/283]
ple, stopping to discuss the phenomenon, gathered into bouquets. The storm
abated, and umbrellas were closed. All blossomed again. Another cloud rolled
in from no place or origin that has ever been found out. These living gushes
from the unknown moved on toward London, and in accounts of them, in Land
and Water, are amusing descriptions of the astonishment they caused.
There is a story of five hypnotised cats. A multitude alighted upon a lawn.
Five cats sat around, motionless, gazing at the insects. A woman tells
of her bewilderment, when, looking out at her lines of wash, which had
been spotless, she saw garments hanging blotched and heavy. At Shoeburyness,
the ladybirds pelted to that men in brickyards were driven from their work.
Unless from celestial nozzles living fountains were playing down upon this
earth, I cannot conceive of the origin of these deluges.

Some entomologists tried to explain that the insects must have gathered
in other parts of England, having flown toward France, having been borne
back by winds to the south-eastern coast of England.

If anybody accepts, with me, that these insects were not English ladybirds,
and that they did not come from France, and did not keep on coming, day
after day, to one point, from Holland, Sweden, Spain, Africa -- and here
consider the feeble flight of ladybirds -- but if anybody accepts with
me that these ladybirds did not fly from any part of this earth to their
appearing point, I suppose that he will go on thinking that they must so
have flown, just the same.

That there are data for thinking that these insects were not English
ladybirds:

The London Standard, Aug. 20, there is a description of them.(22)
"They all seemed to be much larger than the common ladybirds, of a
paler colour, with more spots." In the Field, Aug. 28, someone
writes [283/284] that all the insects, except a few, were yellow.(23)
So far as he knew, he had never before seen specimens of this species.
The Editor of the Field writes: "The red is paler, and there
are divers slight differences that rather indicate a foreign origin."
He says that, in the opinion of Mr. Jenner Weir, the naturalist, these
ladybirds were different from ordinary English specimens.

But these millions must have been very ordinary somewhere.

That there are data for thinking that these insects came from neither
France nor Belgium:

Such as hosts of observations upon the swarms, within a mile or two
of the English coast, and no findable record of an observation farther
away, or nearer France. There is, in newspapers of Paris, no mention of
appearances of ladybirds anywhere upon the continent of Europe. There is
no mention in publications of entomological societies of France and Belgium.
But any of these enormous clouds leaving a coast of France or Belgium would
have attracted as much attention as did an arrival in England. Other scientific
publications in which I have searched, without finding mention of observations
upon ladybirds in France, or any other part of the Continent, are Comptes
Rendus,Cosmos,Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques,Rev.
et Mag. de Zoologie,La Science Pour Tous,L'Abeille,Bib. Universelle, and Rev. Cours, Sci. In Galignani's
Messenger (Paris) considerable space is given to accounts of the invasions
of England by ladybirds, but there is no mention of observations anywhere,
except in England, or within a mile or so of the English coast.

This is the way an invasion began. A great deal was written about conditions
in the invaded land. Probably the scarcity of insects in England was unprecedented.
There was no drought. It is simply that the [284/285] insects had died
out. And billions were coming from somewhere else.

"Margate Overwhelmed!"

In the Field, Aug. 28, a correspondent writes: "On Wednesday
(25th) I went to Ramsgate by steamboat, and, as we approached within five
or six miles of Margate, complaints of wasps began to be heard. I soon
ascertained that they were not wasps, but a bee-like fly. As we neared
Margate, they increased to millions, and at Margate they were almost unendurable.(24)"
Some specimens were sent to the Editor of the Field, and he identified
them as Syrphi. There had been a similar multitude at Walton, on
the coast, about 30 miles north of Margate, the day before.

The little band of scouts, at Ashford -- they carried lanterns. Then
green processions -- yellow multitudes -- the military-looking Syrphi,
costumed like hussars --

A pilgrimage was on.

"Thunder bugs" appeared between Wingham and Adisham. The tormented
people of the region said that they had never seen anything of the kind
before (Field, Aug. 21).(25) Wasps
and flies "in overwhelming numbers" besieging Southampton (Gardeners'
Chronicle, Sept. 18).(26) London an
arriving point -- the descent of crane flies upon London -- doorsteps and
pavements looking muddy with them -- people turning out with buckets of
boiling water, destroying multitudes of them (Illustrated London News,
Sept. 18).(27) This is one of the ways
of treating tourists.

I think that there us a crowd-psychology of insects, as well as of men,
or an enjoyment of communicated importance from a crowd of millions to
one of the bugs. They were humming to England, not merely with bands playing,
but each of them blowing some kind of horn of his own. There are persons
who would be good, if they thought that they could go to [285/286] heaven,
or so swarm in the sky, with millions of others, all tooting saxophones.

Pilgrims, or expeditionaries, or crusaders -- it was more like a crusade,
with nation after nation, or species after species, pouring into England,
to restore something that had been lost.

In Sci. Op., 3-261, is an account of a new insect that appeared
in England, in July of this year, 1869.(28)
For accounts of other unknown insects that appeared in England, in this
summer, see the Naturalists' Note Book, 1869-318; Sci. Gos.,
1870-141; Ent. Mo. Mag., 1869-86, and, Feb., 1870; Sci. Op.,
2-359.(29) It was a time of "mysterious
strangers."

In the Times, Aug. 21, someone noted the absence of small, white
butterflies, and wondered how to account for it.(30)
In the Entomologist, Newman wrote that, up to July 12th, he had
seen, of this ordinarily abundant insect, only three specimens.(31)
Upon pages 313-315, half a dozen correspondents discussed this remarkable
scarcity.(32) In the Field, Sept.
4, someone told of the astonishing scarcity of house flies: in more than
six weeks, at Axminster, he had seen only four flies.(33)
London Standard, Aug. 20 -- that, at St. Leonard's-on-Sea, all insects,
except ladybirds and black ants, were "few and far between."(34)
In Symons' Met. Mag., Aug., 1869, it is said that, at Shiffnal,
scarcely a white butterfly had been seen, and that, up to July 21st, only
one wasps' nest had been found.(35) Correspondents,
in the Entomologist, Sept. and Oct., mentioned the scarcity of three
species of white butterflies, and noted the unprecedented fewness of beetles,
bees, wasps, and moths.(36) Absence of
hornets is commented upon, in the Field, July 24.(37)

They were pouring into England.

An army of beetles appeared in the sky. At Ullswater, this appearance
was a military display. Regi- [286/287] ment after regiment, for half an
hour, passed over the town (Land and Water, Sept. 4).(38)

The spiders were coming.

Countless spiders came down from the sky into the city of Carlisle,
and, at Kendal, thirty-five miles away, webs fell enormously (Carlisle
Journal, Oct. 5).(39) About the 12th
of October, "a vast number" of streamers of spiders' web and
spiders came down from the sky, at Tiverton, Devonshire, 280 miles south
of Carlisle. See the English Mechanic, Nov. 19, and the Tiverton
Times, Oct. 12.(40) As if in one persisting
current, there was repetition. Upon the morning of the 15th, webs "like
pieces of cotton," fell from the sky, at South Molton, near Tiverton.
Then fell "wondrous quantities," and all afternoon the fall continued,
"covering fields, houses, and persons." It was no place for flies,
but to this webby place flies did come.

Species after species -- it was like the internationalism of the better-known
crusades --

The locusts were coming.

Upon the 4th of September, a locust was caught in Yorkshire (Entomologist,
1870-58).(41) There are no locusts indigenous
to England. At least up to May, 1895, no finding of a locust in its immature
state had ever been recorded in Great Britain (Sci. Gos., 1895-83).(42)
Upon the 8th and 9th of October, locusts appeared in large numbers, in
some places, in Pembrokeshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, and Cornwall.
They had the mystery of the ladybirds. They were of a species that, according
to records, had never before appeared in England. An entomologist, writing
in the Journal of the Plymouth Institute, 4-15, says that he had
never heard of a previous visit to England by this insect (Acridium
peregrinum).(43) It seems that in all
Europe this species had not been seen before. In the Ent. Mo. Mag.,
7-1, it is said that these locusts were [287/288] new to European fauna,
and were mentioned in no work upon European Orthoptera.(44)

At the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, Nov. 15, 1869,
it was decided, after a discussion, that the ladybirds had not come from
France, but had flown from places in England, and had been carried back,
by winds to other parts of England. There was no recorded observation to
this effect. It was the commonplace ending of a mystery.

I add several descriptions that indicate that, in spite of London's
most eminent bugmen, the ladybirds were not English ladybirds. Inverness
Courier, Sept. 2 -- "That they are foreigners, nobody doubts.
They are nearly twice the size of the common English lady birds, and are
of a paler colour."(45) See the Student,
4-160 -- "the majority were of a large size and of a dull yellow hue."(46)
In the London Standard, Aug. 23, it is said that some of the insects
were almost half an inch long.(47)

That the locusts were foreigners was, by the Entomological Society of
London, not discussed. Nothing else was discussed. Crane flies and Syrphi
and spiders and all the rest of them -- not a mention. I know of no scientist
who tried to explain the ladybirds, and mentioned locusts. I know of no
scientist who tried to explain the locusts, and mentioned ladybirds --
no scientist who wrote upon a scarcity of insects, and mentioned the swarms
-- no scientist who told of swarms, and mentioned scarcity.

The spiders, in a localised fall that lasted for hours, arrived as if
from a persisting appearing point over a town, and the ladybirds repeatedly
arrived, as if from an appearing point a few miles from a coast. The locusts
came, not in one migration, but as if successively along a persisting path,
or current, because several had been caught more than a month before large
numbers appeared (Field, Oct. 23).(48)
[288/289]

A mob in the sky, at Burntisland, Scotland -- "spinning jennys"
that were making streets fuzzy with their gatherings on cornices and window
sills (Inverness Courier, Sept. 9).(49)
An invasion at Beccles was "an experience without precedent."
A war correspondent tells of it, in the Gardeners' Chronicle, Sept.
18.(50) The invaders were gnats -- correspondent
trying to write about them, from an ink pot filled with drowned gnats --
people breathing and eating gnats. Near Reading, "clouded yellow butterflies,"
insects that had never before been recorded in Berkshire, appeared (Sci.
Gos., 1869-210).(51) At Hardwicke,
many bees of a species that was unknown to the observer, were seen (Nature,
2-98).(52)Field, Aug. 21 and Nov.
20 -- swarms of hummingbird hawkmoths.(53)
As described in Sci. Gos., 1869-273, there was, at Conway, "the
wonderful sight" -- a flock of hummingbird hawkmoths and several species
of butterflies.(54) Clouds of insects appeared
in Battersea Park, London, hovering over trees, in volumes so thick that
people thought the trees had been set afire (Field, June 4, 1870).(55)
An invasion at Tiverton, seemingly coming with the spiders, "a marvellous
swarm of black flies" made its headquarters upon the Town Hall, covering
the building, turning it dark inside, by settling upon the window glass
(Tiverton Times, Oct. 12).(56) At
Maidstone, as if having arrived with the lady birds, a large flight of
winged ants was seen (Maidstone Journal, Aug. 23).(57)
Midges were arriving at Inverness, Aug. 18th. "At some points the
cloud was so dense that people had to hold their breath and run through"
(Inverness Courier, Aug. 19).(58)Thrips suddenly appeared at Scarborough, Aug. 25th (Sci. Op.,
2-292).(59) At Long Benton, clouds of Thrips
descended upon the town, wafting into houses, where they were dusted from
walls, and swept from floors (Ent. Mo. Mag., Dec., 1869).(60)
Also, at Long Benton [289/290] appeared an immense flight of the white
butterflies that were so scarce everywhere else, gardeners killing thousands
of them (Ent. Mo. Mag., Dec., 1869).(61)
At Stonefield, Lincolnshire, appeared beetles of a species that had never
been seen there before (Field, Oct. 16).(62)

It was more than a deluge of bugs. It was a pour of species. It was
more than that. It was a pour on a want.

Entomologists' Record, 1870 -- that, in this summer of 1869,
in England, there had been such an "insect famine" that swallows
had starved to death. [290]

14. "Fireflies in Kent." London Times,
July 17, 1869, p.12 c.4. The species is Lampryes Italica, (not Lampyris).

15. "Fireflies in Kent." London Times,
July 21, 1869, p.11 c.2. This letter was in the issue of July 21st, (not
the 20th); and, the fireflies were said to have been released on June 24th,
(not on the 29th).

16. "Fireflies in Surrey." London Times,
July 20, 1869, p.11 c.1. This third correspondent's letter was in the preceding
issue; and, he states: "Having been in the tropics, I recognized my
beautiful visitors, which had been, so numerous were they, denounced as
nuisances."

21. "Ladybirds." London Times,
August 19, 1869, p. 4 c. 6. The ladybirds were said to have made the streets
appear "covered with red sand," (not yellow); and, though men
shovelled them into the sewers, nothing is said of their being hired to
do this. "Great flight of ladybirds." London Times, August 21,
1869, p. 5 c. 2. "Lady-birds." London Times, August 25,
1869, p. 4 c. 5. "Lady-birds." London Times, August 28,
1869, p. 10 c. 6. The cloud, "coming over the sea as if from Calais,"
was observed at Dover, (not Ramsgate), and in "Kent and Sussex,"
(not Surrey), giving roads the appearance of "dark red gravel"
and a "red carpet" upon Dover Pier. Correct quote: "...this
month countless multitudes...."

46. "Great swarm of lady-birds." Student
and Intellectual Observer, 4 (1870): 160. Correct quote: "The
majority were of large size and of a dull yellow hue...."

47. "The flight of ladybirds." London
Standard, August 23, 1869, p.5 c.7.

48. John Joseph Briggs. "The Egyptian locust."
Field, 34 (October 23, 1869): 347, c.2. Single specimens had been
caught at Fairford, Gloucestershire, upon September 14, 1869, and at King's
Newton, Swarkston, Derby, in August of 1869; however, "a considerable
number" had been caught in 1846 "as far north as Sutherlandshire,"
along with specimens caught in 1852 and 1855.

54. Robert Holland. "Remarkable flight of moths
and butterflies." Hardwicke's Science Gossip, o.s., 5 (December
1, 1869): 273. The two species of butterflies with the Humming-bird Hawkmoths
were identified as Vanessa urtic and Vanessa atalanta.

55. "Cloud of insects." Field,
35 (June 4, 1870): 474 c.2.

56. "Curiosities of insect life." Tiverton
Times and East Devon Reporter (Tiverton), October 12, 1869, p.5 c.4.
For an additional report: "Strange phenomenon." Tiverton Times
and East Devon Reporter (Tiverton), October 19, 1869, p.7 c.5.